Five Narrative Essay Tips for Better Narrative Writing

When you write a narrative essay, you are afforded more flexibility in your writing. The fact that a narrative essay allows freestyle writing up to a point, it’s pretty common that the narrative can go off the rails and lose readers as a result. That can be avoided if the guidelines in writing a good narrative essay are followed. Here are the most important narrative essay tips:

1. Be concise
Keep in mind that you are writing a narrative, not a technical paper. Your writing should be accessible enough to the target audience. This is one of the narrative essay tips that are also applied to writing narrative fiction. Don’t use complex words that only a few would understand. Complex words and syntax can disrupt the reader from the thread of your narrative.

2. Don’t describe everything.
Your readers don’t need to learn every small detail. Stick to the important facts. Information dumping is a bad style of writing. If you focus too much on the small details, your readers will lose sight of the narrative and won’t get the gist of what you’re trying to impart to them through your essay. This is one of the most relevant narrative essay tips, and it also applies to fiction writing.

3. Write in the first-person point of view
A narrative essay should make the readers feel like you’re actually talking to them in person. This creates such a profound effect on readers if done to perfection. This is one of the most useful narrative essay tips since writing from another point of view can disrupt the reading experience. Using a first person point of view makes it easier for the readers to identify themselves in you.

4. Speak through the vernacular
The words and syntax used should be used in a way that is conversational. This is one of the best narrative essay tips since using dynamic wording can catch a reader’s interest and be able to sustain it. This means you can use slang, idiomatic expressions, and turns of phrase to convey your ideas in narrative form.

5. Limit citations
This is one of the most overlooked narrative essay tips, but its importance cannot be downplayed since citations or references become disruptive to the reading experience when mentioned in the body of the narrative essay. Why do readers have to read citations in the body of an article if they’re going to forget them all immediately? Better to put them as an addendum at the end of the narrative essay where readers can go back to if they are needed.

As long as you follow these narrative essay tips, your narrative essay becomes a great rhetorical tool for your readers and presented in a way that can point them in the right direction as far as your objectives in writing the narrative are concerned.

About the Author:
Wayne Regina is a P.h.D in Psychology. He's currently working at Prescott College as an educator. He teaches such classes as Social Psychology and Family Systems Theory. He's also offering cheap essay writing services for his students.